The bottom line is clear: Our vital interests in Afghanistan are limited and military victory is not the key to achieving them. On the contrary, waging a lengthy counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan may well do more to aid Taliban recruiting than to dismantle the group, help spread conflict further into Pakistan, unify radical groups that might otherwise be quarreling amongst themselves, threaten the long-term health of the U.S. economy, and prevent the U.S. government from turning its full attention to other pressing problems. -- Afghanistan Study Group

Baghdad:#1: An Iraqi army officer was killed when a bomb attached to his car exploded in Kazimiyah, the primarily Shiite district north of Baghdad, police and hospital officials said.

A brigadier general in the Iraqi army was killed when a bomb attached to his car exploded in northwestern Baghdad in the Kadhumiya neighborhood, Interior Ministry officials said.

#2: They said a civilian was also killed in a similar attack when a bomb attached to his car detonated in Hurriyah, another mainly Shiite district in the north of the capital.

One civilian was killed on Tuesday and two others were wounded when a sticky bomb went off in northern Baghdad.

#3: In the Dora neighborhood in southern Baghdad, a car explosion killed one civilian and wounded four others.

#4: Police forces on Tuesday defused a roadside bomb in central Baghdad, without causing any casualties. “The bomb was found and defused in the al-Rasheed Street, central Baghdad,” a local security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

Abu Ghraib:#1: At least five people were seriously injured by a bomb attack on an Iraqi policeman's home in the city of Abu Ghraib, just west of the capital of Baghdad, police said. Gunmen attacked the home of a police officer with explosive devices at dawn, leaving him, his wife, and three of their children seriously injured. They have been taken to a hospital for treatment.

Baiji:#1: Four policemen have been killed in one of a series of fatal attacks in Iraq, officials said. The officers died and seven civilians were wounded when an explosives-laden car detonated next to a police patrol in the town of Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad.

"Among those killed was Lieutenant Colonel Hussein Ahmed Hussein, the head of the intelligence department of the police of Baiji, and a tribal leader," a police source in Baiji said, asking not to be identified.

#2: In a separate incident, police said gunmen opened fire on an oil truck travelling on a highway just outside Beiji, killing its driver.

#3: Separately, fire fighters were able to put out a fire caused by an attack on an oil pipeline carrying oil from Bayji to the area of Rashidiya. "A pipeline carrying crude oil in the area of Bayji was attacked by militants with explosives. Thirty fire brigade teams participated in putting out the fire," Qassem Atta, a military spokesperson, said in a press statement.

Irbil Prv:#1: Turkish warplanes have bombarded northern Iraq as Ankara pushes forward with its campaign against the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) terrorist group. The attacks targeted the Sidakan district of Arbil province in the mountainous northeast of Iraq. "The bombing targeted Kurdish nomads in the border area," PKK spokesman Ahmed Denis said of Monday's air raids, AFP reported. "We don't yet know the extent of the damage or casualties."

Mosul:#1: An Iraqi soldier was wounded on Monday in a car bomb explosion in north of Mosul, according to a security source. “A car crammed with explosives went off near an Iraqi army checkpoint in Talkief district in north of Mosul, injuring a soldier,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: One policeman was wounded on Monday in a bomb explosion in western Mosul, according to a security source. “An improvised explosive device went off on Monday targeting a police vehicle patrol in al-Islah al-Zerai neighborhood in western Mosul, injuring a policeman,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: A police force found on Monday a body of a worker in eastern Mosul, according to a police source. “Policemen found a bullet-riddled corpse of a textile factory’s worker in al-Nabi Younis market, eastern Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"#1: A U.N. vehicle was shot up at a busy traffic circle in Afghanistan's capital Tuesday, and at least one person was wounded, witnesses said. The windows were shattered on the white pickup truck, with a blue U.N. logo painted on the side, and blood was spattered inside. The attack came at a time of heavy traffic around Massoud circle, an intersection near the U.S. Embassy and an American military base. Two people were in the vehicle, but only the driver was hit, said a man who saw the shooting. He only gave one name, Mirajudin. Mirajudin said he and the passenger of the U.N. vehicle helped pull the driver out. "I saw that the driver was shot in his eye," said Mirajudin, who still had blood smeared on his arms."He was bleeding from the eye and from the nose. I helped him and we put him in an ambulance."

#2: Suspected US missiles have struck a house in a Pakistani tribal region along the Afghan border, killing at least 10 suspected militants including a possible al Qaida operative, intelligence officials said. Two missiles struck the house near Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan tribal area, where the Pakistan army has been battling Taliban fighters. The house was believed to have been frequented by al Qaida members. Aside from saying one of the dead was believed to be an al Qaida operative, the officials would not speculate on the identities of those killed, but added that they included Arabs, Turkmen and Pakistanis. Four militants were wounded in the attack, the anonymous officials said.

#3: Two civilians were killed and two wounded on Tuesday when a roadside bomb struck a vehicle in the Khakrez district of the southern province of Kandahar, Zalmai Ayobi, spokesman for the provincial governor, told AFP.

#4: In the southern province of Zabul, insurgents attacked a security company vehicle in the Shahr-e-Safa district on Monday, killing six security guards and wounding five, provincial spokesman Mohammad Jan Rasoulyar said.

#5: On Monday, six policemen were killed by a roadside bomb that ripped through their pickup truck in the Bala Buluk district of the western province of Farah, said local police spokesman Abdul Rauf Ahmadi.

#6: A bomb blast also hit a motorcycle in Bala Buluk the same day, killing two civilians, he said.

#7: Elsewhere in Farah province, seven Taliban militants including a local commander, were killed, three wounded and two arrested after they ambushed a police convoy on Monday, provincial police chief Mohammad Faqir Askar said.

#8: A TVNZ reporter and cameraman came under fire from enemy forces along with New Zealand bomb disposal experts in eastern Afghanistan late yesterday. ONE News’ defence reporter Michael Parkin and cameraman Blair Martin – both of TVNZ’s Wellington unit – were travelling with the bomb disposal experts as part of an assignment covering the work their soldiers are doing in Afghanistan. The New Zealand Defence Force has described the attack as “sporadic and ineffective”.

#9: The assault represents one of the largest in eastern Afghanistan in the past several years and reflects growing concern among U.S. commanders and Afghan leaders that Taliban insurgents are seeking to intensify pressure in the east as troops prepare for a tough summer of fighting in the south. The U.S. and Afghan troops, flown in on Black Hawk helicopters, seized the mountainous high ground in Konar province's Marawara district in the pre-dawn hours Sunday and were soon attacked by a force of as many as 200 insurgents. Two U.S. troops died in the assault, and as many as 150 insurgent fighters were killed by the U.S. and Afghan troops in what U.S. officials said was one of the most intense battles of the past year. "Once the battle began, others from the area tried to maneuver into the area," said Col. Andrew P. Poppas, who commands a swath of territory the size of Massachusetts along the border with Pakistan. "This was a tough fight."

The Afghan army, police and border force made up about 60 percent of the attacking force and played a central role in planning the assault, U.S. officials said. The district subgovernor in the valley had been a mujaheddin commander decades earlier and battled occupying Soviet forces in the same mountains. "He knows the valley so well," Poppas said. "Our guys were on the key high ground before the sun even came up." U.S. officials said that the heaviest fighting in the district had ended by Monday morning and that U.S. and Afghan forces had shifted their effort to reestablishing the Afghan police and local government in the district's main village. "The tough part is still ahead," Poppas said.

#10: At least 11 militants were killed and another four injured Tuesday in a clash with Pakistani security force in the northwest tribal areas of Pakistan, local media reported, citing official sources. Militants clashed with Pakistani troops in Ghorogundi area of Central Kurram agency bordering Afghanistan. Three vehicles owned by militants were also destroyed in the military action in Central Kurram.

#11: A Danish soldier was wounded today by an accidental shot. The relatives are informed. The precise circumstances of the accident is still not clear, but it was a shot from the soldier's own weapon that wounded him.